Happy Valentine’s Day One and All. This day of love is often wrapped in images of romance; roses, chocolate, and grand gestures of love. What if this year, you choose you first? Instead of looking outward, you turn your attention inward and celebrate the most important love story of all – the one you have with yourself?
Real love isn’t just about hearts and flowers. It is about the journey of becoming, embracing both the beauty and the struggles that shape you. Love… true, deep, soul-level love includes passion, it weathers pain, and ultimately, it leads you down the path to your purpose and joy.
On this day dedicated to love, consider the greatest gift you can give yourself, the courage to grow, to move outside your comfort zone and experience life, living, and love. Passion, pain, and purpose are not just words, they are the alchemy of personal growth, the steppingstones on your path to becoming who you are meant to be.
Life has a way of throwing you into the fire, testing your strength, pushing your limits, and sometimes leaving you wondering if you will ever emerge whole again. I’ve been going through a lot of that over the past 18 months and sometimes I feel like the fire will never go out, that it will burn everything I have come to know and leave me in a heap of ashes.
Then I pull myself up out of the pity party that invites me to digress, and I look at the flames. What if the fire isn’t meant to destroy me, rather it is the very thing that forges me into who I am meant to be?
This morning as I sat down to write to you all, these three words popped into my head: passion, pain, purpose. Out of curiosity, I wrote them down and began to play with them. I figured passion was coming up with the love that becomes more obvious in our lives around Valentines Day. Pain made perfect sense as it has been my steady companion for some time now. Purpose piqued my curiosity a bit more as I leaned into what that might mean for me going forward.
What I came to know through my musings was that passion is that spark that ignites my imagination, inspiration, and curiosity. It is what makes my heart race, and my soul come alive. It lights up the dream I carry deep in my heart; the love of writing, art, teaching, or simply my deep desire to make a difference. I think passion is the whisper of my inner wisdom reminding me that, “This is what I am meant to do.”
The flame of passion alone isn’t always enough to manifest the dream. It may burn brightly for a time, but without challenge (friction), without resistance, it may flicker and fade. I think that is where pain often enters the picture, when the coals are dying down. I don’t mean just physical pain like I have talked about lately. Pain has many faces…grief, loss, failure, even the growing pains of change.
Pain is often the most powerful teacher you will ever encounter. It strips away your illusions, forcing you to see what is real. Pain reveals the gaps between who you are and who you are meant to and want to be. It pushes you to grow, to adapt, and to let go of those things that no longer serve your dream. As much as I want to resist it, pain is often the force that moves me forward when I would rather stay still.
I think the challenge, for me, is not to let pain define me but rather let it refine me. I face it and ask what it is trying to teach me instead of why is this happening to me? A lesson on befriending this good enemy, pain.
The gold that emerges from the fire when pain and passion meet, has the power to create something extraordinary: purpose.
Purpose is what you gain when you allow your struggles to shape you rather than break you. It is the meaning you find in your experiences; the wisdom you gather along the way, and the way you use these lessons to serve your highest self and others.
Passion gives us the desire to create, pain gives us the depth to grow, and purpose gives us the direction to move forward with intention and forge the path ahead.
I see it is an ever-upward spiraling journey that continuously leads us closer to the most authentic version of ourselves.
Next time you feel lost, remember that passion is your guide, pain your teacher, and your purpose is waiting at the end of the trail.
From my heart to yours.
Please enjoy my Free “Meditation for Centering” MP3
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Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
Connect with Vicki here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vickildobbsauthor